Tlingit Warriors

 Brand new from Eureka Miniatures - so new that they haven't even been released yet - are these 28mm Tlingit warriors.  As an aside, Eureka has had 15mm Tlingit for quite a while now.  

Arthur and I have been interested in Tlingit and other First Nations of the Pacific Coast for a while now.  We've been following James Morris' Mogsymakes website articles, as well as related material in Wargames Illustrated and on Youtube, on the conflicts between the Russian American Company and the Tlingit in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.  We enjoyed our visit to a modern Tlingit community at Carcross, Yukon this summer.  I've also been looking at other materials, such as Graeme Menzies' Trading Fate, which examines the history of how relationships between First Nations and the British, Spanish, Americans and other explorers and traders led to the modern international borders.

So here are the first eight warriors.  I am not confident that I have gotten everything accurate but I'm doing the best that I can!

First up are three archers.  The warrior on the left has a coat of armour made from Chinese coins sewn onto leather.  These would likely have been a bit weathered and not as shiny as I made them, but it's more fun for them to be bright.  

These two warriors have wooden helmets carved to present a ferocious and terrifying image to their enemies.  Again, I've made the colours brighter than you'll find on surviving museum pieces with the theory that when new, the colours would be more vibrant.

The final three (for today) are warriors with iconic elements of Pacific coast FN, including the large daggers, wooden slat body armour, and a war club studded with orca teeth.

I'm going to take some time before I finish up the next group of these warriors.  I want to do some more research, and I'm not satisfied with the quality of my painting.  I really want to do these warriors justice!